Digital Marketing Plan. Case Company

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Digital Marketing Plan. Case Company

Nadezhda Fomina

Bachelor’s Thesis

Degree Programme in Busi- ness Information Technology 2020

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Abstract May 15, 2020

Author(s)

Nadezhda Fomina Degree programme

Business Information Technology Report/thesis title

Digital Marketing Plan. Case Company

Number of pages 28

This product-based thesis work describes the research and development of a digital marketing plan for a commissioned company. The company is a small-sized B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) interior design manufacturing brand in the market. The company has digital resources but has never had a marketing plan or strategy.

Lack of those greatly affects online presence, engagement, and sales. The goal of this thesis is to create a detailed marketing plan which will help to boost sales, increase brand awareness, and improve communication with customers. For those reasons, this project holds great value for the company.

This thesis contains theoretical and empirical parts. The theoretical framework includes research of digital marketing plan’s components and key definitions. As digital marketing is a broad topic, concepts were chosen by the author during the theoretical research. Those are the description of marketing, social media platforms, analysis method, marketing techniques. The empirical part is a practical component of this project. It consists of the company case analysis and gradual development of the digital marketing plan. Methods such as SWOT and SOSTAC were used for the company market analysis. They showed chal- lenges which the company is facing and opportunities that the company should concentrate on. Based on their outcomes, strategy and tactics were defined and the guidelines were written for a website, social media platforms, and email marketing. Posts suggestions and examples were presented as well.

The development of this project took 4 months. Different sources such as marketing books and articles were utilised in order to create a theoretical framework. Based on that, the practical part was developed for this case. As a result of this thesis, the digital marketing plan was completed and presented to the commissioned company.

Keywords

Digital marketing plan, situation analysis, website optimisation, social media marketing, email marketing

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1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the thesis’ background, objectives, and benefits. It also introduces the basic information about the company commissioned this project.

1.1 Topic background

Digital marketing is a key point for every kind of business. It creates brand awareness, in- creases sales, and improves communication between a company and a customer. The marketing plan guides which marketing activities have to be applied to a company in order to get the desired outcome. It organises processes and helps to control them. According to the researched made by Dave Chaffey (2020) around 45% of small-sized companies are implementing marketing activities but do not have a plan or strategy. That greatly affects their sales and brand. The absence of established marketing activities can even lead to the bankruptcy of a company.

The sponsored company of this thesis - Dentro Home does not have a marketing plan and strategy. Implementing marketing activities without the correct vision and understanding can be damaging for a company’s brand and budget. Unfortunately, nowadays that is happening for Dentro Home. The commissioned company is a small-sized business that does not utilise its digital resources in full potential. The result of that is decreased sales and disappearing as a brand from the market. This thesis’s goal is to create a digital marketing plan for Dentro Home in order to help to improve their marketing activities. Using digital technology in an efficient way can be cost-efficient for a small business. The author of this thesis used to work for the company and has maintained the website and social media channels. Thus, the author is well-aware of the processes happening in Dentro Home.

1.2 Case company

Dentro Home is a luxury interior design manufacturing company headquartered in Barce- lona, Spain. It is a small private business with one full-time employee and a few temporary workers and interns. The company’s business is bespoke furniture and furnishing pieces which are mostly used for private residencies, hotels, superyachts. The biggest customer groups are interior designer bureaus and private clients. Therefore, the company’s business system is both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer). The main customers’ area is the United Kingdom as well as rich areas all around the world.

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Dentro Home was established in 2002. The main marketing activities were showrooms in trade fairs. Nowadays, the company is trying to focus more on digital recourses but with a lack of experience and knowledge in digital marketing Dentro Home cannot create utter brand awareness and reach the accurate target group. The company hires interns to implement marketing activities. Work quality is not very high because most of those employees are inexperienced and temporary. Following this marketing plan should highly increase the excellence of marketing activities for Dentro Home.

1.3 Objectives

The objective of this thesis is to create a digital marketing plan for the company in order to increase brand awareness, boost sales, and improve the relationship between a customer and the company.

To archive the result, this thesis requires 5 project tasks:

Project task 1:

Researching the necessary information for the thesis needs. Choosing marketing concepts to concentrate on.

Project task 2:

Analysing the company’s current situation.

Project task 3:

Developing a digital marketing plan according to the previously conducted research and analysis.

Project task 4:

Presenting the marketing plan to the commissioned company.

Project task 5:

Evaluating the project, discussing the outcome of the work and learning process.

1.4 Scope

As digital marketing is a broad term, the scope for this project will be limited to the main elements chosen according to John Westwood’s book “How to Write a Marketing Plan”

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(2013). The figure (figure 1) below shows the main concepts used in this thesis work.

Those are market research, content marketing, website, social media, email marketing.

Each of the topics will be researched in the theoretical framework and based on that, practically used in the empirical part of this thesis.

Figure 1. Digital marketing concepts used in this thesis

1.5 Benefits

This project is highly advantageous for the company as it will acknowledge and guide them on how to beneficially apply digital sources for a business use. The purpose of this thesis is to assist the company in order to benefit from the digital appliances. The main outcomes are supposed to be sales boost, increase of brand awareness, and improved relationship with customers. As the company does not have a marketing plan and strategy and is not well-aware of the beneficial usage of digital resources, this project will help the company to understand and implement those. The main task of this thesis work is to create a practically utilised digital marketing plan for the company’s needs.

This thesis is also beneficial for the author because one works in the marketing field. The author shall learn a lot of new information during the research: scope of marketing aspects; what and why should be included in the plan; analysis, development, and practical implementation of the plan. This knowledge is important for the author and can be implemented at any work placement. This thesis is also a good attachment for the author’s re- sume.

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2 Theoretical framework

The following chapter introduces the main concepts, key definitions, and theoretical basis of this thesis. It describes the definitions of digital marketing, situation analysis, content, website, social media, and email marketing.

2.1 Digital marketing

Marketing is the set of activities focused on communicating, transmitting, exchanging data that is beneficial for a customer (Tuten & Solomon 2014). There are two types of marketing: traditional and digital. Traditional marketing includes printed media, TV commercials, billboards. Digital marketing is a promotion of product or service using digital technology to reach a client (Financial time 2017). Digital marketing is concentrating on administrating a company’s online appearance and performance (Chaffey 2019). The channels where a company is represented online are websites and social media platforms. Those channels require special communication techniques such as content marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing and others. All those topics are researched separately in the following sections of this thesis.

Digital marketing can be a low-cost tool for a company to increase brand awareness and boost sales. Even though the more money a company invests in marketing, the bigger and better it results. Online presence does not require any budget but promoting a company’s account, increasing traffic to a website and advertising in various channels can be accomplished with paid advertising. Nowadays digital marketing plays an essential role in every kind of business, no matter if it is a big corporation or a small company (Digital Mar- keting Institute 2020). Nevertheless, it gives great potential for small and medium-sized businesses to extend (Chaffey 2019). One of the exciting examples is Zalando, the start- up with the help of digital marketing build a brand and grew to a multi-billion business during a few years (Chaffey 2019). The company used Google campaigns to advertise a business all around the world and got an excellent result.

Digital marketing is changing and developing extremely fast. The techniques that were working a year ago, might not be so effective nowadays. To get maximum leads and con- versions, it is important to follow the latest marketing approaches and trends. Avoiding those can be damaging for business and lead to losing a big sum from a budget. Market- ing plan is required for successful marketing activities. The marketing plan is a defined and recorded plan of communication and promotion strategy to meet objectives for a specific company.

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2.2 Market research

Before starting to plan any digital marketing activities, it is important to research the environment of a company. The analysis will define what is the current industry situation, consumer market, product category. It will reveal the company’s problems and show a way to solve them. As well as analysis will expose a company’s opportunities and how to take ad- vantage of them (Tuten & Solomon 2014).

There are several analysis methods used in digital marketing. The most generally and commonly used methods will be presented in this thesis: SWOT for analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats in the marketplace and SOSTAC for a complex situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action, and control analysis. Both methods are used for the commissioned company’s analysis in section 3.1.

2.2.1 SWOT

SWOT stands for strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threads. According to John West- wood (2016), the key process and one of the most important parts in writing a marketing plan is to implement SWOT analysis. It identifies a company’s strengths and opportunities that can be exploited. As well as a company’s weaknesses and threats that can be

avoided. The method’s implementation occurs by brainstorming of a company’s decision- makers. It is used for project planning at a specific moment in time. The analysis can be applied to various areas of a business such as strategy planning, business building, marketing. In the case of marketing, it can be carried out for the company which marketing plan is made for, as well as for its competitors.

SWOT shows the fit between internal capabilities and external possibilities (Bensoussan &

Fleisher 2013). Tuten and Solomon, authors of “Social Media Marketing” (2013) book, also recommend implementing SWOT as a part of situation analysis. According to them it

“highlights relevant aspects of a firm’s internal and external environment that could affect the organization’s choice, capability and resources”. Refer to the recommendations on previously introduced authors of remarkable marketing books, SWOT is one of the most suitable technique for situation analysis.

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2.2.2 SOSTAC

One of the best approaches to develop a marketing plan is the SOSTAC planning system as it shows a broad overview of the most essential issues (Bax & Woodhouse 2013).

SOSTAC stands for situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action, and control. It was developed by Paul R. Smith in the 1990s and so far, it is the clearest and the most struc- tured planning model (Smith 2020). The method executed by a project’s decision-makers to review processes. SOSTAC is a complex analysis method that includes many aspects of a company. It can be implemented for a small business, as well as for big corporations (Rouhiainen 2017).

Figure 2. SOSTAC methodology descriptive picture (The SOSTAC® 2020)

The figure (figure 2) above presents the structure and order of the SOSTAC marketing growth wheel. Each stage has the main questions for a business:

Situation - where are we now? - The first step is the current situation analysis. It shows a company’s marketing condition and activities. SWOT analysis can be also implemented during this step.

Objectives - where do we want to be? – The next step is to define objectives. A com- pany’s aims and goals will create a clear picture of where a business should lead. Objec- tives must be concrete, relevant, and realistic. Otherwise, they could not be achieved.

Strategy - how do we get there? – Then, a strategy should be classified. A strategy is a general vision of how to reach the goals.

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Tactics - how exactly do we get there? - At this point, a business defines tools that will be used for achieving goals based on the strategy.

Action - what is our plan? - Actions are the activities needed to be implemented with the help of the tools in order to reach the objectives.

Control - did we get there? - Lastly, a company needs to constantly control and measure its outcome. Otherwise, it will not be clear whether the strategy has been working and the objectives have been reached.

The detailed SOSTAC analysis of the commissioned company is presented in section 3.1 of this thesis.

2.3 Content marketing

A company should concentrate on creating compelling, quality content to gain success in marketing. It is not enough for a company just to be present online, to stand out a company needs good content to engage with a customer (Solomon 2016). Content marketing generates traffic, leads and sales for a business. According to Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2012) content marketing is “the management of text and media aiming at engaging customers to meet business goals”. For instance, content can be text, video, image, quizzes, and the like. For a company successful marketing, it has to be “the right types of sharable content formats to meet customer interests and company commercial goals” (Chaffey 2019).

Content is used in a company’s online platforms for communication with customers. The more content a company produces the more attention it receives (Rouhiainen 2017). How- ever, it has to be relevant and objective. Chaffey (2020) highlights that content should inspire, convince, educate, or entertain a customer. It should solve customers’ problem and answer their questions. Therefore, being up to date in marketing activities and sharing re- cent news are important for a business. Interactive content is more effective and engaging. It is a good way to grab a potential customer’s attention (Digital Marketing Institute 2020). Another important point in content is a call to action (CTA). Meaning that a social media post should invite a user to make an action towards a company immediately.

Words such as “buy”, ”shop”, ”click” and others should be included in a product-based business post.

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Accurate content marketing is essential and applied for all the online platforms listed in the following sections.

2.4 Website optimisation

One of the most important key points in digital marketing is a website. It helps to show- case a company’s products and services and provide communication between a company and a potential customer from all around the world (Jean & Kim 2020). A website plays an essential role in converting visitors to purchasers. Therefore, a website should be well-optimised and display reliable information. As nowadays most of the internet users use mobile phone for surfing the web, it is efficient that the website has mobile-friendly interface, good usability, and attractive design (Best Digital Marketing Practices for Accelerated Growth of Small Businesses 2020). The speed of the website is also crucial, since users most likely will not spend time on a website which is loading slowly.

Another turning point for a website is search engine optimisation (SEO). It is how to opti- mise a company’s website in a search engine in order to get bigger traffic (Miller 2016). In short, it is the ranking of a website in search engines. SEO is crucial, especially for sales.

A poorly optimised website is harmful if there is a large competition in a business area. To improve SEO on a website a company should produce regular updates with high-quality content, decrease image size, add inbound and outbound links. Furthermore, another opportunity to improve the rating of a website in search engines is paid promotion. It is a great tool to generate traffic to a website. Campaigns place a company’s website to the top of the search engines when a user searches for related business. Executing a successful campaign requires the correct setting of message, target audience, and keywords.

Otherwise, it spends a company’s budget and will not bring an outcome.

2.5 Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a way of conveying, advertising, and exchanging information between a company and a customer through social media channels (Tuten & Solomon 2013). Some of the social networking platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others. Social media brings a wide range of opportunities for a business such as building brand reputation, improving customer-company relationship and interaction, increasing exposure and traffic (Arrigo 2018). Social media is one of the tools to create customer engagement which most likely will lead to a purchase intention in the future (Bismo & Putra

& Melysa 2019). Nevertheless, presence on social media platforms are in most cases

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complementary, a business requires funding for successful marketing activities (Tuten &

Solomon 2013). Those are paid advertising or campaigns. Paid advertising generates better visibility for a company that later potentially can lead to an increase in sales.

There are a variety of different social media platforms nowadays which are suitable for different kinds of business. Choosing the correct platform for a particular business area is highly beneficial. For example, if the business area is interior design then the best platforms are Pinterest, Instagram, Houzz, Facebook, Etsy because there are the biggest number of users interested in this field (Mostyn 2019). Some of those platforms are image-centred and were specifically made for design purposes. Choosing the correct content marketing technique for each platform is important as well. Content marketing is presented in more detail in section 2.3.

The figure (figure 3) below presents the most popular social media platforms by active users in the world as of January 2020. According to this figure, Facebook has the biggest number of users. It creates unlimited target audience possibilities. As a result, it is one of the most efficient platforms for marketing activities. Other platforms with a big number of users suitable for the most kinds of business are YouTube, Instagram, Twitter.

Figure 3. Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2020, ranked by number

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2.6 Email marketing

One of the most important marketing activities for any business is email marketing. It is a communication tool that creates a valid environment for an engaged customer to make a purchase. According to Bismo, Putra and Melysa (2019) email marketing develops a strong relationship between a company and a consumer by promoting special offers, providing personal services, and sharing a company’s news. One crucial point is that this kind of marketing is efficient as in business-to-consumer as business-to-business (Bismo

& Putra & Melysa 2019). Email marketing is also a low-cost tool and, in some cases, does not require any budget at all.

One of the best platforms for email marketing for a small business is Mailchimp. The platform consists of different essential tools for customer relationship management and marketing activities. It allows to build and manage audience data, design, and send newsletters, as well as analyse the results. It is easy to use, and it is free for limited opportunities.

In addition to newsletter marketing, the platform also allows creating campaigns for social media channels and landing pages. It also integrates with many other marketing systems such as WordPress, Slack and Canva. Mailchimp is one of the most popular applications and it won several awards in 2020 (Mailchimp 2020).

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3 Developing a marketing plan

This chapter presents the commissioned company’s situation analysis, strategy and tactics, and guidelines for the digital channels. The aspects of the plan were chosen as a result of the theoretical framework research.

3.1 Marketing growth plan

Research made by the author in the theoretic framework in the subsection 2.2.2 shows that SOSTAC (situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action, and control) is the best method for the complex marketing growth plan. It includes the company’s situation analysis, strategy development, tactics and actions definition, and their control. Every part of the SOSTAC methodology will be analysed separately in the following paragraphs. The figure (figure 4) below was taken as the basis for the analysis.

Figure 4. SOSTAC Multichannel marketing growth wheel (Chaffey 2020)

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3.1.1 Situation

The first step of the SOSTAC method is to analyse what is the situation of the company at the moment. It is important to do a detailed company’s analysis to get a clear picture of the environment properties. For the Dentro Home case, the author will implement a SWOT analysis. This technique was researched and proven to be the most suitable method for this kind of business in subsection 2.2.1 of the previous chapter.

SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) is a crucial point for a company to efficiently create a strategic plan (Crowdera & Wills 2019). By implementing this method, the author will get a clear picture of the company’s current marketing situation.

Strengths Weaknesses

Respectable old brand Long term in a market Global market

Material archive

Qualitative unique product

Limited marketing resources

Limited marketing knowledge and experience

Limited budget Poor online presence

Opportunities Threats

Uniqueness of the product Loyal customers

Existing networking Digital marketing plan

Lack of a permanent marketing representative

Competitors

Table 1. SWOT analysis of Dentro Home

The table (table 1) above presents SWOT analysis for Dentro Home commissioned company conducted by the author. By examining the table, it is clear that the company has a sufficient amount of strengths to create wide brand awareness. Dentro Home has been present for a long term in a market, and it has earned itself a good reputation. The uniqueness and quality of the products also play an essential role. There is a very limited amount of companies which have the same hand-made product as Dentro Home.

From a digital performance position, the company has a website with online shop and products’ information. Besides, Dentro Home has profiles in social media platforms such as Instagram, Etsy, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Houzz. Despite the online presence, Dentro Home never had a digital marketing plan or strategy. The lack of those affects digital performance greatly. Hence, the company’s products are not promoted, and it is hard to find

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them for a new potential customer. Poorly updated profiles on social media can also create a wrong impression of the unprofessionalism of the company. The company hires temporary employees who do not necessarily have enough knowledge and experience in the marketing field. That highly affects online presence as irregular updates with feeble content make a customer lose interest in the brand.

Nevertheless, Dentro Home has many opportunities for creating a successful marketing appearance. The customer insights situation is quite broad and brings a lot of potentials.

There are two groups of the target audience for Dentro Home: interior designers’ companies (B2B) and private high-income individuals (B2C). The company has a big customer data in Mailchimp and business network in LinkedIn. Dentro Home has a number of loyal consumers as well. Reaching out to old customers can help to regenerate sales. In such a specific business area, the network can also grow with a word of mouth. Therefore, this digital marketing plan is a great opportunity for the company to make a reminder of itself to existing customers and reach out to a new bigger group.

Lack of a permanent marketing representative is a big threat to Dentro Home. Inconstant marketing activities affect the engagement of customers and brand awareness. Competi- tors also can be a threat but because of uniqueness and luxuriousness of the company, Dentro Home does not have a whole lot of direct competitors in this field.

3.1.2 Objectives

The next step is to define clear objectives. For the Dentro Home case, objectives are to increase sales, create brand awareness, generate traffic of website and social media platforms. Leaning on those objectives will help the author to find the right strategy for successful creation of the digital marketing plan. The concrete criteria for the company are to improve a business’s processes by using this plan. Dentro Home’s critical success factor and a key performance indicator is implementing this marketing plan.

Some of the dashboards for the concrete social media channels are improving website usability and SEO, producing engaging content for social media accounts, increasing traffic in web and social media. Each of those points will be analysed and developed separately in section 3.2.

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3.1.3 Strategy

The objectives are needed to build a strategy. That will create a vision of how to get to the desired outcome. First of all, a company needs to define customer segmentation to gain higher customer satisfaction. It stands for a group of people with similar characteristics, needs, wishes on which a business should focus (Cant & Wiid & Meyer 2016). Buying be- haviour plays an important role in the segmentation. It defines how, where, when, and why a customer buys a product (Cambridge Dictionary 2020). For Dentro Home target groups are interior designers (B2B) and people with very high income (B2C). The age group is 35+ years old because individuals that age usually have a good income and position in a workplace. The location of the customer groups is wealthy areas in big cities (London, New York, Paris, Moscow, and the like), Middle East (people in those areas are willing to spend more money on high-end products), Winter resorts in Switzerland, Austria, Norway (areas where people have their private chalets). Demographics for private customers are owners of the private yachts, winter residences, hotels, restaurants. Individuals who are interested in the luxury interiors, elite lifestyle, expensive products.

The next step is to examine the four P’s (product, price, promotion, place) of the marketing mix technique. It shows the achievements and capabilities of the company. In the Den- tro Home case, the product is high-quality, handmade, and bespoke. Some of the products are ethically made and environmentally friendly. The price is compatible with the quality of the product. It is available and shipped worldwide. However, the company does not have a promotional strategy. Therefore, marketing communication will be improved with this marketing plan.

Dentro Home provides a multichannel experience for its customers. The company has a website and profiles on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Etsy, Houzz. However, the company is currently lacking an account on Facebook. The one must be created because it is the online platform with the biggest number of users including the company’s target audience. As researched in the theoretical framework chapter of this thesis, engagement and content strategy are extremely important for this kind of business. In order to achieve it, Dentro Home needs to produce high content material including pictures, video, texts. It needs regular email marketing and social media promo- tions. For direct communication with the company online, there are a few ways which are website’s contact page, email marketing and social media updates.

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3.1.4 Tactics and Actions

Overall, the digital roadmap is to start update regularly, improve SEO, produce engaging content, build alike communication style. The tone of voice needs to be the same at every platform: friendly, positive and happy. The media schedule recommended to be once a week for social media updates, and once a month for newsletters. Based on the theoretical research in section 2.3 of this thesis, marketing materials for the company should be text, images, videos, and presentations. It is extremely important that the company’s representative implements scheduled marketing activities regularly.

The detailed digital analysis and report of each online platform are presented in section 3.2 in this thesis.

3.1.5 Control

Analysis of a company’s online activities shows what impact marketing had on sales and if a budget was spent beneficially. It reveals opportunities for developing processes further (Chaffey & Smith 2013). There should be an engaged person to follow the marketing plan and to control the performance. That is the biggest problem as Dentro Home does not have a permanent marketing person.

Marketing activities must be regularly performed and reviewed by the control tools. Dentro Home should create and analyse marketing reports at the end of each month to monitor processes and to see the outcomes. The marketing reports show the worth of previously done effort. The improvements or deteriorations caused by online activities demonstrate where the company should go next and what to improve.

Digital marketing control and measuring are quite easy nowadays with online platforms and technologies. For tracking a company’s outcomes there are different websites and applications. The most commonly used tool for a website analysis is Google Analytics. It tracks, analyses, and reports website traffic. Analysis reveals what content on a page is the more successful and which ones are not. Dentro Home has set a Google Analytics account and uses it wisely.

For social media, there are local insights that report the success of a post or campaign, page traffic, user engagement. Social media insights show detailed information about how users have interacted with a specific post. It is easy to monitor which posts were working

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the best and which were not. The more detailed analysis of each Dentro Home social media insights will be in the following section.

3.2 Digital channels

The full company’s analysis, objectives, strategy, and tactics were defined in the previous sections. Now, it is possible to specify a more detailed action plan for the website, social media platforms and email marketing. In the sections below, complex analysis and suggestions will be presented for each company’s online platform. Examples of recommended posts will be also mentioned. All of them were generated as a result of the theoretical framework research.

3.2.1 Website

Dentro Home has a well-made website with an online shop. It showcases most of the products with price and design variations. The website is simple and easy to use, the design includes the same company style, logo, and font. It is excellently optimised for mobile devices as well as for desktop. The website has an online shop, where products are well- categorised and logically sorted. There is a contact form for private and business enquir- ies. The landing page of the website is presented in the figure (figure 5) below. The background picture of the home page demonstrates two of the company’s products. It also has a small poetic description of the goods. As disclosed in the theoretical framework’s subsection 2.3, it is a great marketing move as it gives an instant short introduction of the company, its products, and features.

Figure 5. Home page of Dentro Home (Dentro Home 2020)

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For the following report, the author used an online tool Neilpatel to analyse the current website situation. The analysis showed that desktop loading time is 2 seconds which is excellent. However, the mobile loading time needs improvement as it is fair 6 seconds.

The loading time can be improved by compressing the website’s pictures’ size (Shan &

Obit & Alfred & Tahir 2016). Another point is a lot of pages have a low word count, SEO requires around 1000-word length on a page with relevant content and accurate keywords. Nevertheless, it should be relevant to the users and not being concentrated only on a few keywords on every web page (Tober & Furch & Londenberg & Massaron &

Grundmann 2015). Another problem for search engine optimisation is missing headings on the web pages. The hierarchy of headings will highly improve rank in search engines, especially H1 is the most important (Woorank 2020).

According to the SpyFu keyword research tool, Dentro Home has 28 organic keywords. It is quite a large amount for a website. Some of the keywords also might be less relevant.

Concentrating on many keywords instead of a few lowers the rank of the company in the search engines (SpyFu 2020). Using a couple of relevant keywords often and on many different pages improves a better position in the search platforms. The ranking of Dentro Home keywords is shown in the figure (figure 6) below.

Figure 6. Dentro Home keywords and rank (SpyFu 2020)

Another aspect of good search engine optimisation is regularly updating the website.

When Google notices that a website is constantly active, it gives a better rate in the search engine. The same goes for updating social media channels that are connected to the website. Social media posts can generate a solid traffic to the website (Woorank 2020).

Dentro Home ran a few Google campaigns in the past. That brought a small increase in traffic. The problem in the campaigns was incorrect settings, too many keywords and wrong target location. For future campaigns, Dentro Home has to use accurate segmentation and a smaller amount of the specific keywords. The maximum number of keywords is

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20. Below in the figure (figure 7) presented the suggested example of the Google campaign made by the thesis’ author. It has a call to action, personal message and a small description of the product. The campaign made according to the recommendation of Lasse Rouhiainen. As the Google campaign interface changes rapidly, the example might not have the same appearance in the time this thesis is published.

Figure 7. Google campaign example

Summary

• Improve mobile loading time

• Add more content

• Add social media profiles

• Add headings

• Decrease keywords, instead use the most accurate ones

• Update the website regularly (at least once in 2 weeks)

• Run campaigns

3.2.2 Social media platforms

Dentro Home has profiles on LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Etsy, Houzz. In the following chapter, the author will concentrate on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest profiles.

Based on the theoretical framework’s section 2.5, those are the most suitable platforms for this kind of business.

Facebook

The company used to have an account on Facebook but there were some technical diffi- culties with a page, and it does not exist anymore. Therefore, Dentro Home must create a page on Facebook because it is ranked as the platform with the biggest user amount.

That reaches 81% of digital users including the right target audience for most of the businesses (Agrawal 2016).

The Facebook profile should consist of weekly updates and the post should include text, images, and videos. A few related hashtags and emojis are also allowed. Another highly important thing for Facebook updates are links to the website. It is good for every other

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post to have a link leading to the company’s web page. It generates traffic which potentially will lead to sales.

Based on the research in the theoretical framework of this thesis, the figure (figure 8) below gives a great example of successful Facebook posts. The Fur source company is a competitor of Dentro Home. In the presented posts, they have an image and caption with a call to action and personal message to a user. The images are high-quality and well-ed- ited with a text. One of the posts shows an example of how to use the company’s product in a customer’s home. It is a great marketing move which gives inspiration and stimulates to buy the product. In the other post, there is a personal question that makes a user think about his home and the company’s product together. The only thing that can be done dif- ferently is a number of hashtags, a few related ones will be enough to create visibility on Facebook. Dentro Home can publish updates by those examples.

Figure 8. Competitor’s Facebook post example (Fur Source’s Facebook page)

Once the account has a number of updates, Dentro Home can start with paid advertising.

Campaigns is a great tool to broaden visibility for a company. Facebook provides a solid amount of paid advertising settings to reach the most accurate target group. The location for Dentro Home’s campaign is London, Paris, Moscow, and other rich cities. Target groups are interior designers and high-income individuals 35+ years old. The more detailed suggestion settings for paid advertising is presented in subsection 3.1.3 of this the-

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Chatbox can be also installed for improving communication with customers. It is important for a company to reply fast as it will improve connections and engage them. Reviews from customers will improve the company’s brand as well. It will instantly create a trust for the brand which greatly effects buyers’ decisions.

Summary

• Create and fill the page

• Once a week update with photos, videos, and text

• Personal message, call to action, emojis in a post

• Run campaigns

• Install a chatbox

• Ask customers to write reviews

Instagram

Dentro Home has a page on Instagram with over 420 followers. It has a well-filled bio with a contact form and website link. The updates are irregular which harms the number of followers. However, most of posts consists of quality images, captions, emojis and hashtags.

The style is similar even though the account is controlled by different people.

For improving performances on Instagram, the company should start posting a few times per week. The post must include a good quality image or video and a well-written caption.

Conducted research in section 2.3 shows that captions should entertain, convince, educate, or inspire. For this business area, reasonable use of emojis is allowed. The updates also should include field-related hashtags. The correct hashtags create good visibility in the app. Another good feature of Instagram is stories. It is a temporary update which is available only for 24 hours. It improves communication with followers and engages them with the brand.

The figure (figure 9) below presents two examples of the successful Instagram posts of Dentro Home. It has a high-quality picture of the product, solid description, related hashtags, target group location. There is also a question in one of the posts’ caption, it is a good technique of creating interaction with a customer. The success of these posts’ examples is based on theoretical research.

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Figure 9. Examples of Dentro Home Instagram posts (Dentro Home’s Instagram page)

Summary

• Regular updates 1-2 times per week

• Usage of good captions and emojis

• Usage of field-related hashtags

• Occasional story updates

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media platform used for sharing virtual content preliminary images.

On Pinterest, Dentro Home profile has over 130 followers. The company publishes its products and saves inspirational related designs. The figure (figure 10) showcases the company dashboard on the platform. Descriptive bio and location are present. Products are shown in the different folders by related topics. Dentro Home performance is quite good and does not require any significant changes in this platform.

Figure 10. Dentro Home’s dashboard in Pinterest (Dentro Home’s Pinterest page)

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3.2.3 Newsletter marketing

Dentro Home has a profile in Mailchimp - the platform for email marketing. The benefits of this platform were proven in the theoretical section 2.6 of this thesis. The company has an imposing number of subscribers on the platform. Interested individuals can subscribe by submitting their emails on the company website. Occasionally, Dentro Home sends newsletters. It consists of a good visual presentation and text. However, the thing that must be improved here is regularity. Potential customers will engage much better by getting con- stant news about new products and offers. Once a month is the most suitable timing for this kind of business. According to the article from Digital Marketing Institute (2020), the best content combination to generate a purchase is a promotion priced specific product with a video designed in a personal email. The newness of the content and images is also important. It is not recommended for a company to resend the old images repeatedly.

Overall, email marketing is well-performed in the company. The only improvement required for Dentro Home is the regularity of newsletters activities.

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4 Discussion

The chapter discusses the thesis’ process, summary, conclusions, and the author’s learning outcome.

4.1 Thesis process

There were 3 main stages for this project. The stages were in the following order: researching the theoretical information of a digital plan and its components, analysing the company’s situation, creating a digital plan. Data for the theoretical part was researched from different literature such as marketing books by leading authors in the field, articles, and theses. Haaga-Helia online library was used as a main source for the research. The empirical part’s analysis and digital plan were implemented as a practical result of the theoretical framework research.

A number of Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences courses have helped the author to complete this thesis. Especially digital marketing courses by Lasse Rouhiainen such as Digital Marketing in Modern Business, Social Media Marketing in Modern Business, Paid Social Media Advertising in Modern Business, How to Start a Social Media Consultant Business. These courses assisted in achieving great results in this thesis. Rouhiainen presented useful online tools for analysing websites and online platforms in his classes. The author uses those tools both for this project and for professional life at different companies.

One of the problems the author faced during developing this thesis was a separation of overall company analysis and concrete analysis of the website and online platforms. As those topics are intertwined, it was difficult to organise them. However, detailed content helped to separate the information and place them logically. One of the risks for this thesis was that the author did not have enough knowledge in the business field. But enough time spent in research helped to gain enough information and get the desired result. Overall, the project did not have any other severe risks and went as planned.

The thesis was written during the author’s last semester in the bachelor’s degree program at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The starting date of this project was in February 2020 and it was finalised by the middle of May 2020.

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4.2 Summary and conclusions

This product-based thesis presents a broad theoretical framework and development of the digital marketing plan for the Dentro Home case. The main goal of this project was to create a digital marketing plan in order to improve sales, brand awareness, and the relationship between the company and customers. To reach those objectives, the marketing concepts were chosen by the author during the theoretical research. For this project out of all marketing aspects were highlighted SOSTAC and SWOT analysis methods, proven importance of website optimisation, presented social media marketing as well as content marketing and email marketing. Those topics were researched in the theoretical part and then implemented in the empirical part of this thesis.

Analysing the commissioned company case, the author stated that Dentro Home has a good base for marketing activities. The company has needed tools and set accounts.

Every social media channel was reviewed separately. Analysis discloses that the website is in good conditions, most of the social media accounts have some number of posts and followers, except for a Facebook account that has to be created and used. The main point that should be improved for every channel is engaging regular content. Dentro Home has a good database of visual material that can be used for this purpose. The author’s suggestions on how to employ marketing activities were presented in the empirical part of this thesis. Practical examples of the posts for social media channels were defined and represented as well. Following those Dentro Home can improve online presence and generate traffic which potentially will lead to the sales boost. The biggest risk for the company is the lack of a permanent person to implement this marketing plan. Regular updates are

needed to engage customers and generate leads. Without consistency, a company can lose customers’ engagement.

This thesis covers all the essential marketing aspects for Dentro Home. As a result of this project, the digital marketing plan was created and presented to the commissioned company. The plan contains clear tactics and actions to reach the company’s requested objectives. If Dentro Home correctly implement this plan, it will greatly advance their operations and bring a fulfilling outcome. As the company was missing a clear strategy before, this thesis holds value for the company and shall lead to great improvements in the marketing processes.

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4.3 Learning outcome

This thesis brought solid learning benefits to the author. Completing research, analysing a business, creating a marketing plan from a scratch helped the author to expand

knowledge in this field. The author had little experience in some parts of the development of a marketing plan before. However, the author has never established a plan in such a complex way as in this thesis. It helped to gain a strong theoretical framework in this topic and to learn a lot of new concepts. The thesis expended the topic’s understanding as the author was familiar with some concepts but has never worked with them before. It also made the author look at some matters from another point of view. Additionally, the thesis process improved the author’s writing skills and research techniques. This project is especially important as the author is working in the marketing position. Therefore, this

knowledge and experience are highly beneficial and would be implemented at any work placement.

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